Biometric sensor systems are known in the art. A prior Internet publication regarding a Tanita “MC-980 Multi Frequency Segmental Body Composition Meter” (the “Tanita reference”) describes a biosensor information collection system having a automated stand/station with a scale at the base of the stand and a digital display at the top of the stand. The publication further explains that a height measurement accessory is optional.
Prior art biometric sensors are generally configured to determine the body fat of a user via the imposition of a low voltage alternating current (AC) between electrodes in contact with at least two points of said user's body. The complex impedance of the user's body between said points of contact, comprising a real (resistive) component and an imaginary (reactive) component, determines the current flow between said points. Expressed in alternative language, a small current is imposed at one electrode, said current flows through the user's body to another electrode, and the voltage between the two electrodes is measured. In accordance with the inherent definition of impedance, a user's bioimpedance is defined as the ratio of the analog voltage applied between any two of the two or more sensors in communication with a user's body to the analog current measured to flow between said sensors. Accordingly, two sensors are required for any measurement, and the use of more than two biosensors permits the measurement of bioimpedance between each pair of two sensors. Where a measured scalar value is acceptable for the use at hand, only the magnitude of the current and voltage need be obtained. Whenever the true nature of the complex impedance is required to permit analysis of both resistivity and reactance, which in turn enables determination of other characteristics such as relative permittivity, the phase relationship between the measured current and voltage must also be known. Raw data from this measurement is then correlated with other data, including but limited to an estimate of the volume of the user's body and calibration information specific to the hardware, to estimate the body fat content of the user. Whenever used herein, the term “bioimpedance” refers to the analog ratio of an AC voltage at one or more frequencies between a particular pair of biosensors in communication with a user's body to the current flowing through said body between the same two sensors. This is an analog quantity, whether in scalar or complex form, and it should be understood that its measurement requires the use of one or more specialized analog machines. Said specialized analog machines include but are not limited to an AC generator capable of producing at least a sinusoidal output, but in some embodiments the AC generator may also be configured to produce waveforms of other types such as square waves, triangular waves, ramp waves, sawtooth waves, and frequency-domain comb waves comprising simultaneous components of specified frequencies and amplitudes. Other specialized machines required for bioimpedance measurements include analog voltage measurement devices and analog current measurement devices. These are known in the art to comprise the analog components necessary to measure the analog quantities of voltage and current, which may subsequently be converted to digital form via known analog-to-digital (A2D) conversion. This subsequent conversion does not alter the fact that the voltage and current components, and the bioimpedance represented by their ratio, are unquestionable analog quantities and that their measurement and determination cannot correctly be deemed to be any form of computer-based process or method.
Whenever used herein, the term “biodata” typically refers to the combination of the user's measure bioimpedance data in conjunction with the user's measured weight, both of which are data obtained from measurement of at least one biological characteristic of a user's body. However, in some contexts, the terms biodata and bioimpedance used with reference to data may pertain to either the bioimpedance data or the weight data separately, since both may be characterized as elements of a user's biodata.
A method known in the art to estimate the user's volume is to scale the impedance measurement with the square of the user's height. However, this method fails to account for the cross-sectional area of the user's body that is equally important in any calculation of body volume. While this electrical determination method is generally not as accurate as other methods, such as hydrostatic weighing methods, it is often preferred because it is fast, non-intrusive, and requires a minimum of external equipment. While the prior art teaches the use of this hardware for simple body fat determination, it fails to disclose the use of this hardware for more extensive assessment and characterization of users' bodies, thereby leaving any number of needs unmet for which such assessment and characterization may be highly beneficial.
The system disclosed in the Tanita reference is not an exercise development system. For example, the system as disclosed in the Tanita reference does not provide any exercise recommendations, much less do so by identifying specific exercises to be performed on identified exercise equipment. The system of the Tanita reference also does not connect with a mobile application that may be utilized to collect data about specific exercise apparatus or specific exercise facilities. There are many other aspects of the present disclosure not disclosed in the Tanita reference.
Mobile exercise development applications have also been disclosed in the prior art. One such reference, U.S. Published Patent Application No. 20130196821 (the '821 reference), discloses a mobile exercise development application that collects biometric information about a user, collects data about available exercise machines (such as with a scanner on the mobile device), and, with both of these types of information, generates customized exercise routines for the user.
The '821 reference does not disclose an automated biometric information collection station much less use of such a stand to provide the biometric data to a mobile exercise development application. The '821 reference also does not disclose use of information generated by the application, such as exercise apparatus identification data for apparatus in particular locations, to provide a database of exercise apparatus at differing such locations.
Further, to applicants' knowledge, the prior art does not include any such database compilation of exercise facilities by location much less one accessible by a mobile application. Although Google maps and other mobile applications have long tracked and reported a mobile device user's location and directions to differing identified locations, to applicants' knowledge such prior art applications have not provided an identification of differing exercise facility locations along with identification of exercise resources, such as particular machines, available at the locations respectively. Similarly, they have not provided automatic identification of the subset of locations available locally to a mobile application/device user. And, mapping features have not been provided with any such features to applicants' knowledge.
The applicants believe they have discovered problems and deficiencies in the prior art such as those set forth above and others solved by one or more embodiments disclosed in this specification.